SNOW: Gritting update on Harborough district’s roads

Alex Blackwell

Gritting lorries have been working in the Harborough district over the past 12 hours to keep the roads network clear of snow.

The white stuff started to fall at about 8.30pm last night and left a thin blanket of snow throughout the county.

Leicestershire County Council says gritting lorries were working continually throughout the night to treat key routes – about 1,200 miles of highways across Leicestershire and its full fleet of 17 gritters are out again today (Friday), treating priority routes.

Farmers have also offering assistance with ploughing in some rural areas last night and this morning.

Information on gritting, including a map of gritting routes, and advice on preparing for wintry weather can be found at www.leics.gov.uk/gritting.

Gritting lorries have been working in the Harborough district over the past week to keep the roads network clear and unaffected by the recent cold snap.

The county council has been receiving continuous weather forecasts and has monitors road temperatures 24-hours-a-day.

Gritter drivers are on standby and spread salt whenever there is snow affecting roads.

When ice is forecast, 45 per cent of the roads network is treated, including most A roads, some B and C-class roads, major commuter and bus routes and as far as is possible, at least one route through all Leicestershire villages.

There is also a network of 730 grit bins across the county to help residents clear public roads and footways.

The gritters spread about 150 tons of a special salt and molasses mix last night and this morning.

In the Harborough district, there are 122 ‘priority one’ routes covering 41 villages and the towns of Market Harborough and Lutterworth, as well as about 350 ‘priority two’ routes across the district.

Priority one routes compromise main distributor roads, all B roads, and those other routes required to be travelled on the salting route in order to treat main distributor roads and B roads.

Priority two routes are ‘heavily trafficked’ C roads such as those secondary distributor roads not treated as part of the priority one network and locally important roads in the carriageway hierarchy.

Also included are major bus routes not treated as part of the priority one network [in urban areas roads with eight or more buses per hour and in rural areas with two or more buses per hour) and at least one route into all villages as far as is reasonably practicable.

In Market Harborough town centre itself, there are 25 routes on the schedule with 11 having priority one status.

In Lutterworth there are 25 routes in total, with 15 having the highest priority.

Outside of the towns, Husbands Bosworth has the highest number of routes – seven – of the highest priority.

Twitter users can also follow the council’s gritting updates by following the @LeicsCountyHall account.